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Full text of "The Canadian Railroader Weekly. Vol. 2 No. 7: February 14, 1920"

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FEB 1 8 



THE INADEQUACY OF OUR TAXATION 
A. F. of L. ENTERS POLITICAL ARENA 
BRAKEMEN AND $15 SILK SHIRTS 
OTTAWA, LONDON AND SCOTTISH LETTERS 

From Our Own Correspondents 


OFFICIAL ORGAN, MONTREAL, FEBRUARY 14th, 1920 - 4 

FIFTH SUNDAY Vol. 2, No. 7 

MEETING ASSOCIATION 

OF CANADA. 5 cents a copy a year 



Page 2 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADER 


February 14th, 1920 


Be Fruitful and Multiply 

(Wherefore Shall Ye Live in the East-End.) 


D K. Duiistaii Grey ami Dr. W. A. 

L. Styles lecture against birth 
control in ^lontroal, and many 
Montreal landlords are opposed to 
renting shelter tj) t'aniilies, so that 
the doctors and tlie landlords be- 
tween tlieni present a rather per- 
plexing i>robleni. I read the other 
day of a Montreal landlord who 
went so far as to notify a young 
couple that their lease could not be 
renewed because he had a suspicion 
that the stork was on its way. 

Speaking from experience of hav- 
ing to billet a wife and seven chil- 
dren, r can, testify that I am an un- 
desirable tenant in all those desir- 
able residcjitial districts west of 
Ihirk Avenue and north of St. (Ca- 
therine street. If 1 should want to 
freeze a mid-town, or west-end or 
north-end landlord stiff with indig- 
nation, ail I would have to do would 
be to phone him that I wanted to 
rent his modern premises, pause a 
moment, and then announce the ex- 
tent of my domestic entourage. In 
amongst the Jews a little further 
east, I am not regardeil as (piitc so 
black a criminal, for the Jews them- 
selves run to fair families and a 
vice does not look so bad when it 
liappens to be your own. But to be 
thoroughly at home I have to live 
amongst the French-Canadiaim in 
the east-end. J even l)egin to ac- 
(juire a little distinction there, and 


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need not be a bit scared to publicly! 
parade the whole gang on Lafon-! 
taine Park, for instance. Occasion- ; 
ally 1 am told that some Freneh- 
Canadiaii landlords in the east-end ^ 
do enquire about tlie size of fam- 
ilies witli a view of keeping tlieir 
premises for childless people or for' 
people with families whicli are re- 
spectably small. Pejsonally I have] 
never met one during all my liouse- ! 
hunting and house-renting amongst: 
the French-Oanadians for fifteen 
years. Xo French-Canadian 1 ever! 
met, landlord or neighbor, ever used i 
my family in eviilence against me. j 
On the, contrary, all made' me feel' 
that my crimes had extenuating cir- . 
cumstances, or perhaps, indeed, that! 
was to be congratulated on my def ian- , 
ce of the laws and ordinances in opera- ‘ 
tion west of Pa'-k Avenue. It lias i 
been a common experience to be told | 
that I had quite a good French 
Canadian family” or given that old! 
French jiroverb which says ^^A liome ! 
without children is like a church-bell j 
without a cl'dpper”. Briefly, the 
Freiicli-Canadian says in relation to 
my family, ^‘Good for you”, Avliile ' 
the folks west of Park Avenue say ■ 
‘‘Good Lord”! I leave it to the I 
meeting to decide which is the more i 
pious of tlie two. ' 

A few days ago my French-Cana- ! 
dial* landlord raised my rent two j 
dollars. That is liad enough, perhaps, i 
but think of what would have hap - 1 
pened to me west of Park Avenue, j 
even spjqiosing tliat some deluded j 
landlord had given me a house' 
there! lie said that he thought he. 
(‘Ould get more than I was paying, I 
but he had been less exacting on ac - 1 
count of the large family. He also j 
saiil that lie hopeil I would renew' 
the lease. Can you beat it? 

It seems odd tliat a family lias to i 
find its shelter, not amongst its own 
peoide, but amongst the people of an- 
other race, language, and creed. It 
pay.s a good deal for these people of 
another race, language, and creed 
that this is so. 

Xow, while families are tolerated; 
in the (‘ast-end, it is questionable! 
whether great stretches of the east- : 
(Mid are tolerable for families. Dr. | 
Grey and Dr. {Styles know this, as j 
both are keen .students of social con- ; 
(lit ions, and Dr. Styles is the un- i 
<l(^f(‘ated champion of Montreal ba- { 
bios. Tlie good doctors favor tlie| 
injunction to be fruirful and multi-! 
l)ly, but what about it w ith its | 
modern aineiidmeiit ?: — 

”Be fruitful and multiply (where- 
fore shall ye live in the east-end, 
mayhap in the congested, frowsy 
places, or besiile the garbage dump, 
or amongst the red liglits, the booze 
emporiums and the poolrooms)”, 

K. C. 



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Gunns Limited 

TORONTO 




February 14th, 1920 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADER 





party politics will need to sup- 
press a smile at the programine 
outlined by the American led- 
eration. Oji the eve oi’ i)olitical 


he can receive iustice, before 
ihe gr(*at pi*oblcms of food, 
(dothing and slielter, the pi’ob- 
lems of a more ev(‘n distribution 


O KUANIZEI) political act- , should still like to remark that 
ion by the American Fed-, this is quite a large order. Nei- 
eration of labor will.ther in the Senate nor in the 
come as a great surprise to in- , American Congress could you 
ternational trades unionists find a baker’s dozen of partisan 
througliout the Donnnion. Ef- . politicians, Hepublican or De- 


forts to organize labor parties 
citlier in Canada or in the Unit- 
ed States have always been om- 


necessary with the followiiig 
will the 


mocrat, who arc ‘Trieiids'’ of 
labor, and as to the President, 
he stood siqiinely by while Jlr. 
inuusly frowned upon by thei Palmer tore through the ranks 
moguls in the labor movement. ' of labor with his famous injunc- 
Samuel Gompers, the veteran ; tion. It was the president who 

president, has untiringly and al-1 discovered the technicality that election. . . 

ternatelv fought and plead- jtho United States was still ati Wdien wdl the Ameneai 
ed with members of the A. F. war, wliich brought the miners i workmai) begni to understand 
of L. against the establishment ' under the operation of the fain-, the A. I. ( s ot louional econ- 
of a labor partv. He has main- Ions Lever l^aw. When the mni- omies, when will it dawn upon 
tained that the solidarity, thelers’ organization was benig Inm (as it has dawned upon the 
foundation, of labor, rested torn to ribbons, when the steel j Lritish workman) thatbefoie 

upon its economic strength. In I workers were shot down bj a, 

his view, if labor were to be cat- private constabulary, Avlieii any - 1 
apulted into the swirling pol- one who raised his voice found; 
itical eddies and whirlpools, j himself imprisoned as an alien, | 
the disruption of the movement when the rights of tree speech' 
was threatened. ’ and assemblage were wiped out ! 

Nevertheless, political labor b.y t>ie ruthlessiiess of frenzied j 

organizations have been spring- ; t ,.A.f 

ing up in Canada and in the j “fr'^nds of Labor ? What ,^en-, 

United States. In England, the i "hat congressmen, what: 
laborites according to Mr. Rat-i p-<?'^^dent, raised a hand ut-, 

cliffe of the •• Manchester j >'red a single prote.s 1.1 de-, 

Guardian’-, will >.ave an over-' ot 
whelming majority in the Brit-C^'^ men/ 

ish Government. Even a casual If labor is to chastise those | 
study of tiie mass movement ' who have been found wanting, I 
will disclose tliat the workers j repeat that it is quite a large 


election, politicians have always ol the world s wealth to those 
professed profound love and ad- who toil, can never be sohed 
miration for the honest, sane, until the workers have a direct 
sensible American working voice in the making ()f the laws 
man. Once elected, however, which determine their econom- 
they fall in line with the party . ic destiny? The very interna- 
machine, and work and vote tionalism of labor as determined 
exactly as the whii)s demand by the peace treaty, seals the in- 
and command. Any other i)ro- evitable pi'ocess of this course, 
cedure is political suicide. In ; political machinery of the 
other words, even if labor were is the artery through 

to succeed in chastising some of ^vhich the blood of life flows 
the notorious anti-labor politic- to the throbbing heart of labor, 
ians, a rechastisment would be 


There is one difficulty in the 
path of the great political ad- 
vaiUMUuent of laboi*, and that 
is to discover and educate men. 
callable and wortay :o (*arry its 
gleaming bainiers to victory. 

George Pierce. 


of all countries have determin- . order. Anyone familiar with the 


► •i* -♦ 4* < 


ed to secure a voice in the mak-| blazing spirit of American 
ing of the laws under which 
they must live. 

The American i>lan of polit- 
ical action is uni(iut‘, even if it 
is ineffective. A(‘Cording to As- 
sociated Press reiiorts of Feb- 
ruary 8th, Congre.‘ui is denounc- 
ed as having failed to do its du-; ^ 
ty. There is a great national ^ 
crisis, so they say, threateningly 
the free institutions in America. , ’J 
All trades unionists and all lov- 
ers of freedom a-.-i' lo be mobil- ,^ 
ied in an effort to defeat can- f 
didates indifferent or hostile, J, 
to labor and to elect ‘‘triiCi* 
and tried” friends of the 
trades union movement. Sam- 
uel Gompers, Frank .Morrison •*; 
and James O'l’onnell were ap- * 
pointed as an executive commit- 1 1 
tee and empowered to obtain | 
whatever assistance they might ^ 
need. Thus neany four million ? 
workers are to be circularized 
and organized for ])olitical 
chastisment wherever the 
the oninion of 


Sadler & Haworth 


Tanners and Manufacturers of 
Leather Belting for 43 Years 


MONTREAL, Que. 
511 William 8t. 


TORONTO, Out, 

38 Wellington St. East 


WINNIPEG, Man. ST. JOHN, N.B. 

Princess Street and Bannatync Ave. 149 Prince William Street 

VANCOUVER, B.C. 

149 Prince William Street 




it 



“OANONG’S” HARD CENTRES and NUTS 

“The Finest in the Land” 


punishment in the opinion 
the executive is merited. 

With great deference to the ............. 

American labor veterans, T + 


GANONG BROS., LIMITED 


ST. STEPHEN, N.-B. 


Page 4 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADER 


February 14th, 1920 


Itet ■ 


(From oiir own coire.s])omleiit) 



I T is difficult to resist tlie tempt- 
ation to borrow a pleasant con- 
eept which a wellknown American 
journalist, Mr. E. G. Lowry, recent- 
ly used in the re-appearan'ee of 
William Jennings Bryan at the 
dackson Bay Banquet. He likened Mr. 
Bryan to one of the troubadours or 
jongleurs of the ^tiddle Ages. The 
troubadour was a sort of wandering 
minstrel, who fared forth along the 
open road, singing songs of love and 
chivalry wherever ho could secure 
an audience. 

Mr. Robert Rogers is today the 
troubadour of the Canadian political 
world. From place to place he wand- 
ers, singing of his lost love, the Tory 
party, and striving to hearten such 
audiences as he can secure with tales 
of merry strifes to come. Last week 
he touched his guitar at a meeting 
of the Manufacturers’ Association in 
Montreal and he sang of the glories 
of protection and tariff wars and the 
grand and chivalrous ideals which 
were the heritage of the great Con- 
servative party. His audience may 
have like the song and cheered the 
singer, but in the market place the 
word goes forth that the melodies of 
Mr. Robert Rogers have lost their 
charm with men and women who 
yearn for some new kind of music. 
8o our troubadour will perforce have 
CO return his guitar and find some 
other love to sing of than high pro*- 
tection. 

But still the Hon. Robert has all 
the true spirit of the troubadour. He 
has always liked the wanderings up 
and down the country, the meetings 
with all manner of people, the pleas- 
ant conclaves with the faithful, the 
bustle and excitement among expect- 
ant contractors when he used to set 
foot in a town, the genial hospital- 
ity given and received, and the air 
. of good camaraderie which used to 
envelop the Tory machine in days 
gone by. 

AVhat tales he had to tell of ^^old, 
nnliappy, far-off things and battles 
long ago” in his beloved Manitoba, 
of the great knight, Sir Rodmond, 
a nd the fur famed Mr. Colin Camp- 
bell, gone now to a better world; of 
the silver-tongued Br. Montague, also 
no more, and many another gallant 
esquire who was ever in the fore- 
front of the fray till the great dis- 
aster of 1914. 

Cabinet councils and caucuses he 
loathed with all his heart and soul; 
the dullness and respectability of his 
colleagues chafed his Bohemian spi- 
rit and he was never so happy and 
care-free as when he had escaped 
from Ottawa to organize a by-elec- 
tion or some provincial campaign. 
But now for him these happy days 
are over; politics have taken a se- 
rious turn, the electors are interested 
in stupid things like the cost of liv- 
ing and profiteering, and no longer 
will they listen to sprightly tales of 


the brave glories of Toryism and the 
wanton crimes of l>iberalism. 

But the Hon. Robert does not see 
■'t. Up and down the country he 
wanders, still hoping ngainst hope 
that the old times will come back. 
IJke the troubadours of old he has 
no fixed home, but he is always 
blithe and gay. Only, like them 
also, he is out of place in the 20th 
century. In corners of the land he 
has faithful bands of followers who 
like to hear him sing, but every 
month their numbers fade away. 

What the Hon. Robert should do 
ere a sense of adversity overwhelms 
and dulls his spirit is to write a 
Memoir of his Life and Times. What 
a book he could numc? Its publish- 
er’s fortune would be made and it 
would come to rival the great auto- 
Inographies of Marie Bartshikeff 
and Benevuto Cellini. With what ex- 
pectation— and anxiety— would its 
advent be awaited! What tremulous 
flutterings would it create in the 
j homes of some of the greatest of the 
1 land as they wondered day by day 
ljust exactly how much the author 
would reveal! WJiat old scores he 
could pay off! 

W'ould he praise Sir Robert as a pa- 
triot statesman whose great virtues 
were marred by a few defects? 
Would he revile Mr. Arthur Meighen 
as a false friend who had bit the 
I hand that fed him in his youth? 
Would he tell the full story of the 
Manitoba Parliament Buildings and 
the campaign fund of 1911? How 
much would he disclose and how 
much conceal? Prof. Skelton’s 
Life of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, soon to 
appear, bids fair to be a great book 
and' fine storehouse of political hist- 
ory, but it would burn its ineffect- 
ual fires beside an autobiography of 
Mr. Rogers as far as wide and prof- 
itable criculation was concerned. As 
the professional reviewers say, will 
Mr. Rogers not settle down and give 
us such a book? ! 


T hriving children prefer 
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easily-digested nourishment 
of prime Manitoba wheat. 

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Bir Robert Borden has now emerg- 
ed from the fog which has sur- 
rounded his whereabouts for the last 
three weeks. On AVednesday he 
landed in Plymouth, and is now est- 
ablished in England on what is call- 
ed a private unofficial visit. The 
cables tell us that he has been lunch- 
ing with Mr. Lloyd George in hist- 
oric No. 10 Bowning Street, and the 
pair would have an opportunity of 
comparing notes upon the advantag- 
es and disadvantages of Coalitions 
and the art of managing them and 
perpetuating their existences. 

Sir Robert has the less nimble wit 
of the two but the Lloyd Georgian 
Coalition is, if an\'thing, in worse 
shape than his own, and Mr. George 
was probably seeking the recipe of 
a new political cement. All that 
l>oor Sir Robert would be able to 
^ suggest would be to double the sess- 
I ional indemnity on some pretext or 
I other. He is to sojourn in the Isle 
I of Wight, the favorite winter resort 
j of maiden ladies and merry widows, 
j retired Indian colonels and sated pro- 
I fiteers. They may be more congen- 
I ial to him than the colleagues he has 
[ left behind: they could scarcelv bo 
less. 

It would be interesting to discover 
who actually is the spokesman of the 
Dominion Government today, or 
whether there is a government at all. 
For some time past the variety of 
opinions and policies issuing from 
members of the Cabinet has been so 
bewildering that a detached observer 
i might be excused for reaching the 
conclusion that the Cabinet never 
j met ,or met only upon the same sort 
'of 'terms as Mr. Clemenceau and the 
German delegates did. 

The question of international ex- 
change, with which is bound up the! 
pi oblem of our whole economic posi- 1 
tion, is today of paramount import- ! 
ance and interest to the whole coun- j 
try. But the public utterances of our I 
rulers reveal a multitude of con- 1 
flicting urgments and afford not the 
slightest guidance to the public. -I 
One Minisier tells us that we areJ 
now a poor country and must expect j 
to be worse off before we can be I 
better. 

Another sees no cause of alarm,! 


rebukes the pessimists who predict 
bankruptcy and blue ruin to come, 
and says all will je well provided' 
we cease to make any purchases in 
Ihe rnited States. 

One recommends the increase of 
our export trade a.s a solution ami 
another says the less foreign trade 
we have the better under the pres- 
ent circumstances. 

But one and all of our politicians 
and prophets unite in a regular com- 
munity chorus to insist that the re- 
medy for our financial and econom- 
ic ills is increased production.^ ^ There 
is only on e way ’ ’ ! .Mr.Meighon and 
Sir Henry Bray I or, both tell us “to 
carry our national burdens and main- 
tain our standard e lixlug, and il a: 
is to produce more.’’ 

It sounds very sensible and wise 
and our statesmen doubtless believ(* 
that the meanest intelligence can 
grasp the logic of their reasoning. 
But there are some heretics who take* 
issue with the doctrine that super- 
production is the proper remedy, at 
least from the point of view of the 
mass of the community. Their case, 
briefly stated, rests on the admitted 
and undeniable fact that those com- 
modities become plentiful and cheap 
which are the object of super-pro- 
duction, and on the equally certain 
fact that these cohimodities arc not 
generally speaking today the com- 
modities in cojumon u.se and neces- 
sity among our wage-earning and 
producing classes. The iniquitous 
laxity of our war taxation has left 
a limited class of people in Canada 
with a superfluity of riches, and, in 
order to spend it, they are encourag- 
ing super-iprodnction in luxuries. As 
pioduction increases in the commod- 
ities not in common use among the 
workers, the credit based on them, 
that is to say their money values, 
enters into the general currency and 
depreciates the purchasing power of 
the wages distributed. In sliort, in^ 
Cl eased production of luxuries ha.s 
t le inevitable effect of increasing 
the cost of necA'ssities. 

The contention of this school of 
^onomie thought is that until there 
is a better system of distribution of 
wealth ‘^increased production’’ 
merely spells dearer living for all 


February 14th, 1920 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADER 


Page 5 


who live on wages an«l fixed in* 
comes. 

The rich advance as a common ex- 
cuse for their indulgences and extra- 
vagance that these processes make 
work; in other words, distribute pur- 
chasing power among people who 
would otherwise have none. This may 
be true, but, if this is the real t)b- 
oct, would it not be easier to give 
them the purchasing power outright, 
just as the government is now giving 
grants to the returned soldiers? 

That is the use of the workers and 
the plutocrats having to go through 
“Ihe formalities of producing and con- 
suming vast cpiantities of luxury 
goods, often thoroughly harmful to 
the consumers, if the only object is 
to distribute purchasing power to the 
indigent ? 

It is surely a wa'Ste. of both good 
material and labor at a time when 
there is no great plenitude of either 
for the worhl ’s needs. The more lux- 
uries there are produced, the higher 
rises the price of necessities. If 
the rich want to help things along, 
they should pay the wages of 
workers so that they could give their 
labor for nothing to the production 
of necessities like houses, food, etc. 
But making work for the poorer 
classes by employing them on lux- 
ury production in a sure means of 
increasing their poverty. 


The working classes are now aware 
that a Manx cat might as well try 
to catch its tail as wages try to over- 
take prices, under the present system. I 
The real value of wages has been j 
steadily decreasing for several cen- 1 
turies. After the great plague of; 
the Black Death, whicdi decimated i 
the population of c^ngland, the la-- 
borer was in an exceedingly strong 
position. lie only received, it is' 
true, three shillings, or 75 cents, per 
week in wages, but as an expendit- 
ure of sixpence, or 12 cents perj 
week covered his coat of living, he; 
had over 60 cents to spend. But the | 
modern worker, who gets a wage, j 
let us say, .$40 per week, finds diffi-| 
culty in purchasing his bare cost of 
living with the whole of that sum. 
If wages had kept the same relation | 
to j>rices as in the fifteenth century,! 
he should have had at least .$.‘10 perl 
week to spend after his living had ' 
been defrayed, w’hereas in reality he. 
has little or nothing unless he is a ; 
member of ('ortain highly-favored ■ 
trades. His true purcliasing power i 
over and above the provision of the 
bare necessities of life is dejplorably ^ 
small and the same holds good of the ! 
salaried middle classes. . 

It is little wonder tna? our manu- ; 
facturers, knowing the poverty of 
the home market, have been .scour- 
ing the Balkans and other remote 



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countries in search of customers on | 
whom they can unload their pro- j 
duce. Our exi.sting wage system has j 
the effect of reducing real wages so i 
that they just keep pace with thej 
cost of living, if they do not act- i 
ually fall behind it, and there is not, ! 
as there should be, a profitable and! 
expanding market at home for or- 1 
din ary commodities. ; 

Balancing the speeding iij) of or-, 
ganisation and machinery against ! 
the withdrawal of thousands of men i 
for the fighting forces, it is still! 
probable that during the war our' 
net national producrtfwii fell off. The, 
real quantities are obscured by the 
tremendous rise in prices. Yet there' 
was very little unemployment, no 
starvation, and the general standard ; 
of living among the workers was' 
never so high. The reason was that ! 
the distribution was better. The| 
wives and children of the soldiers 
received a steady income and the im- 
perative nature of war contracts en- ' 
ibled labor to bargain at arm’s! 
length. 

The matter is that if on a normal! 
production we were able by a better! 
distribution of wealth to raise the! 
cost of living materially, the possibi- 
lities are enormous if we could com- 
bine effective distribution with aj 
maximum production. The real par- j 
amount problem of the future which ; 
has both political and economic as-! 
pect.s, is to ensure better distribu-' 
tion of the product of labor. 

There has been an attempt in some 
quarters to show the existence of a I 
permanent hostility between the pro - 1 
ducer and consumer. If there is any j 
conflict between them it is the result j 
of a misunderstanding. ! 

If each of the two parties would j 
concern himself with his own busi-| 
ness and leave the other man’s! 
alone, more satisfactory results; 
would be arrived at. The business! 
of the producer is with production — ; 
with the effort incurred and tne | 
terms of exix'nditure in connection 
with it. It is in no sense the busi* | 
ness of the producer to organise dis- i 
tribution and consumption. On thej 
other hand it is not the business of 1 
the consumer to organise production, ; 
ho should confine his energies to the ! 
distribution of the product. j 

Cost is in the depairmcnt of the ; 
the producer; price bqlongs to the! 
consumer. If these separate spheres | 
were duly divided up and their | 
boundaries respected, there would be | 
no. conflict between the consumer: 
and producer. 

This is the season of the farmers’; 
convention in the west and the Man- > 
itoba and Alberta gatherings are 
now things of the past. A study of 
such reports as are available leaves 
the impre.ssion that at these conven- 
tions there is displayed a higher! 
average political wisdom and econ- 
omic statesmanship than in ever al- 
lowed to emerge in most of our Par- 
liaments. For one thing, these 
meetings are free from the strangling; 
formalism and silly procedure rules; 
which Parliaments still retain as a: 
legacy from days when politics were] 
simpler and time was of less account, i 


They can achieve a directness of ac- 
tion and keep discussion strictly to 
realiHes in a way that is impossible 
for Parliamentarians. Into such dis- 
repute have our Parliaments fallen 
that all over the country there are 
springing up as a foci of public 
opinion bodies which are democratic 
groups. Of such a nature are the an- 
nual gatherings of the various farm- 
er and labor bodies, of the G.W.V.A., 
the (-anadian Manufacturers’ Assoc- 
iation and others. Their proceed- 
ings and decisions arouse far more 
real interest that do the' antics and 
oratory of the average ]>rovinciaI 
legislature. Of course if they were 
to sit for six months interest in 
their <loings would steadily decline. 
But the fact remains that it is in 
these democratic group assemblies 
rather than in halls of legislative 
bodies that the problems of the na- 
tions are most efficiently threshetl 
out and policies of solution devised. 

There are no renirirKalde incidents 
to chronicle about the western meet- 
ings. They are reported to have en- 
joyed a larger attendance and to 
have accomplished more work and 
listened to a greater volume of in- 
candescent oratory than ever before. 

It cannot be said that mere was any 
marked enthusiasm for the Coalition 
Government in evidence and its ini- 
quities were a fruitful theme. 

Apparently in Manitoba the lost 
leader, Mr. B. C. Henders^^-Jiad at 
one time, the purpose of facing''ius._ 
erstwhile political friends and plead- 
ing for his political life with the 
eloquence of a Burt or ‘Curran. But 
his heart failed him at the last; he 
dared not face the rude and desper- 
ate men who farm the Manitoba 
prairie, and he contented himself 
with issuing a lengthy and some- 
what lugubrious statement, in which 
he defended the propriety of his pol- 
itical course last session and mourn- 
ed over the dull stupidity of men 
who could not discern in the Coali- 
tion Government the last barrier 
against revolution of the darkest 
kind. 

The Alberta farmers brought to an 
end their separate political execut- 
ive, which is now merged with the 
ordinary executive of the U. F. A. 
They decided to continue their ex- 
clusive group idea in organisation 
for political purposes, but to be ready 
to co-operate with other groups such 
as. Labor and the G.W.V.A. 

At this convention Mr. Crerar 
made a very wise speech in which 
he gave some salutory warnings to 
his audience. He bade them re- 
member that there were other people 
in Canada besides farmers, and that 
while their organisations had made 
great progress, they were a long way 
from controlling the Government at 
Ottawa or even carrying out their 
programme. 

J. A. Stevenson. 

WILD^ OATS 

Some wag has said that in this 
year of grace and prohibition the 
old line Wine, Women and Song 
should read Ginger Ale, Wives and 
Community Singing. — The Survey, 
Xew York. 


Page 0 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADER 


February 14th, 1920 


■ ♦ X-^ X* X .-i'— -Jf 

i * 


OUR SCOTTISH lEHER 




(From our own Correspondent.) 


Glasgov;, .lanuaiw 24th. 


N OW that the National Union of 
Railway men have aeeepted 
the (Toveniment offer in connection 
with the condilions of the uniform- 
ed railwaymen the railway clerical 
and supervisory staffs are claiming 
attention. It was pointed out to me 
l>v a member of the supervisory staff 
on one of the principal railways that 
the programme of the Railway 
Clerks’ Association was first sent 
to the railway companie.s in danuary 
of last year, and an agreement was > 
reached between the Railway j 
Clerks' Association and the Railway, 
Executive Committee on August 2d i 
last, the conditions and increased 
salaries to date from August 1. 

‘‘It is now tlie end of January”, j 
he sairl, “and not a vniaing has, uj) | 
to the present, been pai<l to the i 
staffs concerned, and stationmast- ‘ 
ers, clerks, inspectors and others are 
at present rtN^eiving less for Sunday; 
duty and overtime than the major-; 
ity of other grades, although they 
arc held responsible for the carrying! 
out of the companies’ business and 
the safety of the travelling public.! 

“Surely five months is sufficient 
time to complete the classification 
of about 11)0,000 clerical workers, 
and you can cpCite understand the 
feeling of the staffs on all com])an- 
ies at having taken the responsibil- 
ity and yet receive less in wages 
than the men they supervise. It is j 
all very well for the Railway Exe- 
cutive Committee to say that we j 
shall get all arrears in time, but it I 
is very galling for the staff concern- 
ed, and at present tlie whole of the 
clerical staff, etc,, are absolutely 
dissatisfied at the great delay of 
the Railway Executive Committee, 
and unless the new conditions of 
service and salaries are put into 
operation shortly the conser|uen('es 
will be grave.” 


wholesale trades shall be eligible for 
membership. This shall include such 
other allied workers as the mem- 
bers in annual conference shall de- 
cide, such <lecisions to be in accord 
with the general regulations of the 
three National Trade Union Con- 
gresses or such other authority as 
may be set up by Congress to deal 
with the lines of demarcation appli- 
cable to trade unions.”* 


Tobermory’s luture 
The estate of Meshnish, within 
which lies a part of the burgh of 
Tobermory, has now been sold to a 
Glasgow and London syndicate, who 
mean to utilise it for carrying on 
an important scheme in fish and 
meat. The purchases include, along 
with the feuing rights over town 
property, the steamboat pier leased 
by M’Brayne, Limited, a big tour- 
ist hotel, and the fishing rights 
around the rich Coll and Tiree banks. 
The syndicate’s scheme includes the 
erection of a factory supplied with 
all the recent appliances for deal- 
ing with fish, the manufacture of 
fish meal and fish manure and the 
provision of swift .steamers to carry 
su])plie.=i to the southern markets. 
An extensive farm on the estate 
will be used for rearing cattle, sheep 
and pigs. In addition to the ordin- 
ary trade in meat there will be ba- 
con curing and the manufacture of 
sausages and tinned and rolled 
meats of various kinds. 


YE 


OLDE 


FIRME 


57 


THOUSANDS OF HOMES 


Are gladdened by the beautiful melodies and the 
artistic rendition of every kind of music on the 


l^rtntzman Sc (Ho, 


Plagrr-l^iattn 


7he Tiifierent T^layer-T^iano"' 


or 


And the beauty of it is that anyone can play this 

wonderful instrument 
without knowing a note 
of music. Have a demon- 
stration, today, of its ex- 
pression capabilities, its 
exquisite tone, its patented 
“weather-proof** and 
“wear-proof** action. 


HEINTZMAN CO., LIMITED 


193-197 Yonge Street, 


- TORONTO 


Shop Assistants 


At a meeting this week the ques- 
tion of the amalgamation of interests 
between the Amalgamated Union of 
8hop Assistants, Warehousemen, and 
( Jerks, and the National Union of Co- 
operative and (Commercial Employ- 
es, was discussed. In the course of 
<liscussiou, consideration was given 
to a clause put forwanl liy the Joint 
('ommittoe as to the admission of 
moiuber.s. The fear was expressed 
by several delegates that amalgam- 
ation oil the lines suggestel, includ- j 
iiig this particular clause, would re- j 
suit in the formation of a General j 
Workers’ Union. After further dis- j 
cussion, the conference agreed that 
the following be substituted for the 
Tlisj^uted clause: — “That any per- 
son of either sex employed wholly or 
mainl}’^ in auy commercial occupa- 
tion in connection with the retail or 


The Subway Strikers 

There is no sign that a settlement 
is in sight in the Glasgow Subway i 
strike. Both employers and men 
cling tenaciously to the attitude 
first taken up. The lines have been 
entirely closed for v wceK. Massed 
picketing by the ^strikers, who num- 
ber over 2000, have been successfully 
carried on. The strikers have issued 
an appeal to the Governmeut for an 
investigation under the Industrial 
Courts’ Act. They stated tlieir wil- ! 
liiigness to submit their -claim to any ; 
unprejudiced person in Glasgow or ; 
elsewhere. At the same time the j 
men express regret at the incon- 1 
venience the 9topi»age of the subway | 
has caused, espe.cially to working 
men. It wa.> only, they .say, with the 
greatest reluctance tliat tools were 
‘ ‘ ilowned ’ 


(’on sequent upon the strike, the 
Corporation tramways have been 
extremely busy. Meeting under the 
auspices of the United A'ehicle 
Workers, the Glasgow tramwaymen 
to the number of approximately 450, 
adopted two resolutions. The first 
demanded the cancellation of med- 
ical examination for tramwaymen 
who bad entered the municipal 
service before and during the war. 
The second, making allusion to a 
suggestion that the Tramways Com- 


mittee may run extra cars to cope 
with the ailditional traffic caused by 
the strike of the Subway employees, 
pledged the tramwaymen to observe 
strictly the regulation regarding 
overloading, and warned the (.^om- 
mittee that if such a service be put 
into operation, a further meeting 
would bo lield to discuss this policy, 
which was considered detrimental 
to the cause of the men on strike. 

As a ju’otest against tlie fixing of 
prices the Fuel Committee, and 
also against the general shortage of 
supplies, the majority of Glasgow re- 
tail coal dealers stopped the sale of 
coal from lorries in the streets this 
week. It is lield by the lorrymeii, 
who have been nursing their griev-. 
ances for the jiast six months, that 
the reduction in prices niade in June 
last was not justified in view of the 
high wholesale prices charged. About 
two months ago a stoppage of work 
was threatened, but, according to a 
statement by the dealers, this was 
averted by the Fuel (Tommittee pro- 
mising to revise prices when the new 
railway rates came into effect. Sup- 
plies are now so short, the retailers 
aver, that they can only work two 
days per week.. The action now be- 
ing taken was decided upon at a 
meeting of men engaged in the del- 
ivery trade. Considerable inconven- 
icnce IS being caused to household- 
ers in the city. 

A big scheme of municipalisation 
in Glasgow is foreshadowed by Bai- 
lie Wheatley, one of the Labor mem- 
bers of the Town Council, whose 


proposal is that the Markets (Jom- 
mittce and the Parliamentary Bills 
(.’ommitte should take steps neces- 
sary to enable the Corporation to he 
able to ])c the sole wholesale mer- 
chants or auctioneers in the meat, 
fish, and fruit markets of the citv. 


The wages dispute which has been 
going on in Glasgow and district i.i 
connection witli co-operative employ- 
ees for tlie past montii, lias now been 
settled. There were .*.vo unions af- 
fected, the Shop Assistants and the 
Union of Co-operative Employees. 
Representatives of both coiifered 
with the Wages Board in Glasgow, ^ 
and big concessions liave been 
granted. 

It is rather remarkable that clerks 
engaged in legal offices liave so far 
taken no stei>s to form a union. With 
very few exceptions, no war bonus- 
es or increased salaries have been 
received b}’ law clerks, and tlie sal- 
aries paid at the present time by leg- 
al firms are quite inadequate in view - 
of the highly technical and respons- 
ible work performed by their assist- 
ants and of the high cost of living. 
Solicitors in practice are now enti- 
tled to make an addition of 20 per ^ 
cent, to their fees, as allowed in the 
‘ ‘ Table of Fees ’ ’. The employers, 
therefore, have secured an increa^ 

T ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ A I-.. 1 — * 


of their usual fees, presumably to 
ni/eet the enhanced cost of living. 
What a union has been able to do 
for bank clerks and shipping clerks, 
the railway porter and the ticket 
collector, it should be able to do for 
the law clerk. James Gibson. 









February I4th, 1920 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADEE 


Fage 7 


OUR LONDON LETTER 


o 


(From our own Correspondent.) 

l^ondon, .ianuary lOtli. rlu* average, rate of every grade asj 

a liasis for the now standardisation.: 
NC K again vve arc tais '.ijg i ail - 1 Government are ready tO| 

ways over heie. The crisis i (.onsider such cases and propose that! 


whieli I spoke last week has passed 


ns soon as aiul providing an agree- 


jiiKl a spttlcnipnt has oncp moio been , the f'eneral 

question, a list of the individual men 
concerned shall be prepared with a 
view to arranging that these men | 
shall retain their coml>ined present | 


agreed to by i\ delegate conference 
of the National Tnion of Kailway- : 
men and the .Ministry of Transport,; 
acting for the Government. 

The terms of the settlement may existing war wage 

Ik‘ briefly stated: 

Standard rates to be ba^'d en t);* 


The W.R. Brock Companydimited 

Dealers in 

DRY GOODS, WOOLLENS AND CARPETS 

WHOLESALE 

MONTEEAL 

Cor. Notre Dame West and 
St. Helen Streets 
Cor. St. Helen & Recollet Sts. 

TORONTO CALGxVRY 

(iO-68 Bay Street ('(u*. Eighth Avenue and Second 

41-17 Wellington Street Street West 


and be subject to the operation of : 
the slifling scale in the same wav a. , 
jivpi asp pre-war rates of the ^rarlo : ,,,eir fellow workmen. '• 

or group of grarles, instead of on the , , , ^ 

^ , In the matter of the back pav, i 

highest, as the men demanded. , , . , , . J. I 

. the replv made an explanation ot | 

Sliding scale tor u.timate wages ^ ' 

, • • i.j /> . something which had been luizzling 

to remain as in tlie ( rovemmei.r prop- . . , , . , 

^ the men a good deal. It said : 

' " i - 1 • 1 • XI .‘‘The offer made prior to the strike 

The os. per week conrained in the; i i 

, , X 1 1 X ' that if the new proposed stand- i 

proposals tor men to be extended to , ^ , . , . ^ 

^ , , ard rate gave anv man a higher rate 

women ,with 2.s. od. for bovs and ‘ . 

. , , ,0 * 01 than his then existing rate 

girls under IS. i .. ‘ 

r , I 1 • X 1 pav plus war wag(^, the eftect ot ' 

Individual ('uses ot hardship to be. ^ , 

. , the high rate should applv as trom ; 

con.inlered in order that such men ^ ‘ ^ • 

shall be assured as good terms as the 
rest. 


Hack pay to be calculated as a;,, 


August 18th 1919. This would be! 
extremely difficult to calculate 
after such a lapse of time; and as! 


fixed sum of £1 per man. 

Scheme to be extended to Ireland,: 


an alternative it was suggeste<l that 
each man should receive a fixed sum 
of £1.’’ 


LIKE THE HALL MARK ON SILVER 
IS THE WATERMARK IN PAPER 


THIS 

U'A TEJiMA UK 



GUAEANTEES 

QUATATY 


'N Cf*' 

LOOK FOR IT ON ALL YOUR STATIONERY 

Howard Smith Paper Mills, Limited 

MONTREAL 


with certain exceptions. , 

riM ^ 4 ’- • 1 XX X • 111 This, the Government (*ontended, 

I he ofticial statement issued bv t • 


the Ministry of Labor says that the 
Government decided they could not 


would give the men in the aggrej 
ate a consi«lerably larger amount 


lopan from tko attitucio tnav ha.l ""y "" 


throughout a<loj»te<l of refusing the 
(lemaiid to base standard rates on 
the highe.d pre-war rates in t he 
grades. 

“The Government consider”, the 
statement continued with regard to 
the sliding scale, “that any attempt 


der the former arrangement, but 
some few men would not get as 
I much. The Government were jue 
pared to adopt the more detailed and 
i laborious method if the men prefer- 
I red. 

Kventually, as I have shown, Mr. 


to standardise wages under the pr-s- ; »• Thomas, M.P., the union’s 

eiit abnormal conditions was neces- Secretary, on their behalf, 

sarily to be accomi)anie<l by such a JU'cepted the £1. 

scale. Future variations upwards ; Gonsiderable imimrtance is attach- 
or downwards in the cost of living , ed to the fact that the scheme is to 
can be met in no other sati.-factory ’ be extended to Ireland. This means 
wav. : that the average pre-war weekly 

“It should be noted that sucli rate of a grade or group of grade.< 
scale only becomes operative on i on the Irish railways will he ascert- 
siims which are in excess of a min- ' ained at .‘>8s. added thereto to form 
imum rate of wage which averag Hu' rate .as long as the cost of liv- 
es double the pre-war rate.” ’uig remains at 12.) per cent, above 

It should also be noted that, the ; iu*e-war cost. These rates are also 
Government having adopted the ! ^>f course, subject to the sliding 
lirincijile as the only “ satisfactory fnul “stop” principle as in the 

way” of meeting v.ariations in liv ; <^f Great Britain, 
ing costs, this same principle may. It is important to note that it is 
1)0 expected in future in regard to ' agreed that the rates fixed before 
all sections of labor with which ti»'^!the strike for drivers, firemen and 
Government finds itself a negotiat- 1 cleaners in Great irritain are now 
or. I to oper.'ite in Ireland, with the ex- 

Regarding the individual cases of ception of narrow gauge and road 
hardship which have been bones of! railways. Settlements for Ireland 
contention, the Government observe- 1 are to date the same as those for 
tions are: “The representatives of | Britain as far as practicable, 
the men pointed out that... a small | It now remains to be seen whether 
number of men would have their|the men will be more disposed to ac- 
wages automatically reductMl after |cept the terms than they were last 
Sept. :U»th next, although there; week. It is no use disguising the 
might not at that time be any fall ! fact that they are not much nearer 
in the cost of living as compared i the original demands than the offer 
with the pre.sent time. Of these they I rejected a few days .ago. They had a 
turnished typical example.s. i very hostile reception at a great 

“This was the reason urged for; many meetings and when the deleg- 
adopting the maximum, rather thanjates mot at union headquarters, the 


op])o.sitioii was considerabb*. But : 
Mr. .1. II. Thomas, !M.l’., made it: 
l>erfectly j)lain that he did not ex-' 
pect anything better from the Gov | 
eminent as at present constituted 
and recommended acceptance. j 

Turning to other matters, British! 
Labor is making strenuous efforts 
towards relieving <listress in Aust-^ 
ria. 

.\ fund has been oiiened and au- 
, thorize<l by the chief Labor org.aniz-j 
jations. | 

The Farliamentary Committee of; 
the Trades rnion Congress voted aj 
! grant of £/)00 and theii* action w.is 
! prom|)tly followed by the National 
j Fnioii of Kaihvaymen who have con- 
; Iributed £2,000. The Miners’ Fed- 
; eration have given £10,000 direct toj 
; the ‘‘Save the Childien’’ Fund,! 
I which is to he used for the s.ame ob- j 

i 

Labor has evmy reason to be 
! proud of the success which has at-j 
I tended its efforts in th(> by-elec- 
I tions during the first twelve months 
! that have passed since the Coalition 
Government came into office. Lithe 
12 by-elections which they contested, 
the total Labor vote polled was 1111,- 
78:> against 10,481) j)olled by the Coa- 
lition whether Liberal, Fnionist or 
nemocrat. In the bast three by-elec- 
tions the total Labor vote was .*10,- 
947 against th(‘ total ('oalition vote 
of 28,901b If the series of by-elec- 
tions can be taken as a fair indica- 
tion of what will happen at the next 
General Election, Labor’s j)rospects 
are unusually encouraging. 

The strike of agents for tht‘ Fearl 
! Insurance Company continues aiul 
j the number of stiikers grows daily. 

The men’s organization has reach- 
' ed a high state of perfection, and 
; its policy in the main is one of 
I peaceful picketing. In every London 


area pickets, are sending in <laily re- 
poj-ts of tlie success ()f their'<ifforts, 
and while the rnion strength is "aug- 
mented with every morning mail, iL 
is reported that not one of the men 
who have come out has returned to 
work. 

As an iuidauce of the vagaries of 
this wealthy company, I may men- 
tion the c.ase of one of the agents 
and what happened to him. M’hen 
he c.ame out on strike the company 
alleged that he was not entitled to 
certain procuration fees, amounting 
to £2. 10. lOd. and a county court 
summons followetl. x-Vs he did not 
know what fees were refenaMl to he 
w.a • looking forwartl to an interesting 
case in the County (’ourt, when the 
following communication from the 
firm’s legal re})resentati ves came to 
hand. 

‘ ‘Taki* notict' that we shall not 
proceed further in this a<'tion, and 
that we hereby withdraw from the 
same. 

Cndoubtedly the Fearl jieople are 
si'oiug the re<l light. 

A projio.sal to erect a National 
Labor :Memorial in memory of the 
men who fell in the war is commenc- 
ing to receive the sympathetic con- 
sideration of the Trades Fnions and 
other Labor bodies in a i»r.actical 
m.auner. 1 nions are subscribing 
generously and one suggestion to 
hand is that the Trades Fnion Con- 
gress and the Labor Party should call 
upon the affiliated bodies to pay a 
farthing p(*r member tor one and a 
half years, and thus secure suffi- 
cient cai)it:il for the enterprise with 
in a .lefinite time. The trustees arc 
hoping the way may be prepared for 
building operations to start fairly 
soon. 

Ethelbert Pogson. 




I 'agc 8 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADER 


February 14th, 1920 


ollfr (dattaJiran Satlrnabrr 

WEEKLY 

The Official Organ of the Fifth Sunday Meeting 
Association of Canada 

Organized Sept. 1916 

Tncorporatod under Dominion Letters Patent. 
April, 1919. 


J. A. Woodward, Presidcvt 
J. N. Potvia, Vice-President 
W. E. Bony, Sec.-Trcasurer 


C. P. R. Conductor 
C. P. R. Train Dispatcher 
G. T. R. Conductor 


Executive Committee. 

S. Dale, C. P. R. Engineer; D. Trindall, G. T. R. Locomotive En- 
gineer; John Hogan, C. P. R. Assistant Roadinaster; Archie Du- 
fault, C. P. R. Conductor; E. McGilly, C. P. R. Locomotive Fire- 
man; W. T. Davis, General Yard Master; W. Farley, C. P. R. 
Locomotive Engineer; W. Davis, G. T. R. Engineer; M. James, 
C. P. R. Engineer; S. Pugh, G. T. R. Conductor; Wm. Parsons, 
C. G. R. Agent. 

Issued in the interest of Locomotive Engineers, Railroad Con- 
ductors, Locomotive Firemen, Railroad Trainmen (Switchmen), 
Maintonanoe of Way Men, Railroad Telegraphers and employees 
in all branches of the service. 

Membership open to all who toil by Hand or Brain. 


V eai ly subscription : $2.00 


Single copies ... 5 cents 


PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 
THE CANADIAN KAILROADER LIMITED 

m DANDl'H.WD IIUILDIAG. MOATREAL 

GEO. PJERCE, Editor. KENNEDY CRONE, Associate Editor. 


it. I remember what a contrast her beautiful carriage and pair, 
her sleek footmen and her fine clothes made with the place and 
the people who provided all the glitter. 

Now, Miss Tennant that was is Mrs. Asquith of to-day, 
mother of Lady Bonham-Carter, and runror hath it that Miss 
Tennant brought quite a large chemical-and-soap-work ‘‘dot’’ 
to IMr. Asquith when she married him. Probably Lady Bonham- 
Carter is a fine lady mainly because her grandfather had that 
immense chemical and soap plant. And so it ill befits her to 
talk overmuch about merciless machine and docile, helpless 
cogs. It is poor politics, too, in her father ^s cause, as Paisley 
is only seven miles from Glasgow, and the memories of Clyde- 
side voters are long and their questions blunt and searching. 

K. C. 


m«air 3ffrnm IConiinn 


M' 


®lfn0p Sortla, Olaga 

A rable dispatch says that Lady Bonliam-Carter, daughter 
of ex- Premier Asquith, has exploded a bomb in her 
fatlier s canrp at the famous Paisley campaign by de- 
scribing trade unionism as “a merciless machine in which every 
man is a docile, helpless cog''. A British 2)olitical journalist 
of long experience feels that ''Lady Bonham-Carter is not old 
enough to remember the anger with which the Liberals and 
workmen of the country resented the late Lord Salisbury’s de- 
scription of trade unionism as a cruel organization, or she would' tx- ♦ xi. xi.- « tt ^ • i , 

liave fo.-oseen that anythinf? of the kind coming from her would i 1 /• 

I.e.a friglitfni hlow at her father s credit.” . Have / B. and S. made enough money to retire to ; 


IKTI anti-labor capital was made last week of a story 
from London that John Brinsmead and Sons, the famous 
piano makers, had decided to close their factory, throw- 
[ing more than 800 persons out of employment, because wages 
soared so high and workers worked so little as compared with 
the good old days. The selling j^rice of pianos had trebled. 
John Brinsmead and Sons thought the selling j)rice "outrag- 
euos”, and had decided to cease production rather than further 
increase prices or sell at a loss. This, too, they wailed, at a time 
when the demand for pianos was far in excess of supply, and 
the Germans were preparing to steal British trade. 

Such a conflict of explanations would be hard to beat, and 
a little thought will show that the real explanation has not yet 
come to light. 

Even if, for the sake of simplicity, we accept J. B. and Sons 
scolding of labor as being well merited, here we have famous 
piano manufacturers who decline to make pianos at a price 
which purchasers are willing to pay, the demand being much 
I greater than the supply. They cannot produce enough pianos 
for the market, yet they will close their factory rather than take 
the money of the public ; they will throw 300 Britishers on the 
streets, and they will deliberately pave the Avay for German 
trade. Can you imagine a Canadian farmer saying: "I cannot 
produce enough foodstuff to meet the demand at the prices I 
charge, but I am convinced that these prices are \oo high, and, 
being a conscientious person, I refuse to produce any more. I 
propose to fire my help, dispose of my stock and implements, 
and allow my land to go barren. In future you will have to 
get your foodstuffs from Prussia or Timbuctoo”. 

No ; John Brinsmead and Sons must give us more light. Are 


W hat (loos Lady Bonham-Carter know', about trade union- 
ism, anyway? 1 jubn’staiiding of it is not acquired at court lev- 
ees, at Mayfair balls, while ya< jiing in the Solent, shooting 
grouse in the Highlands, skating in Switzerland or sunning in 


Georgian castle for the rest of their days ? Are they really 
blocked with business, or are they falling behind in the race by 
reason of, say, incompetent management or antiquated machin- 
ery ? 

The real light will come one of these days, organized labor 


Ihe Riviera ; tales be true, these were largely training j being, fortunately, in the position to secure it. Labor is the Man 

school tor Lady Bonham-Carter. | 


K. C. 


, from Missouri. 

It IS acquired, usually, amongst people who work most of| 
the time, and play only at brief periods in very limited circles. 

A good university for it is in the Glasgow slums I wrote about 
some weeks ago and in the near-slums surrounding it for a 
considerable extent — perhaps eight square miles at least of what 
miglit be termed an industrial district, its highest monuments 

llie snutkeiUHlRniie stacks of factory and foiuKlry, and its low-: rTABEES and railways formed the subject of some recent 

I txrm fvn 1 J ‘x 


©ma. Eatlraada, l^umana 


est the underground dungeons — ^locally known as ‘'dunnics — ■ 

in which huiifan families lived and struggled. An immense chem- 


weighty speeches delivered in Montreal, and it was of 
interest to note how intensive can be the interest, how 


icalaiul soaiM'lant whose sulphnric and other odors kUled most iwond the organization and ready the Governments, to 

plants ot the eatdi, stood in the middle f>f this dull district. 1 : bestow care upon the things which they are convinced affect 
think Keir llardie, wlio knew it well, would have described it the industrv and material nrosnerit.v nf the nntinn s:.- 


as •‘a merciless machine in which every man was a helpless, 
docile cog", and out of which machine the only way lay through 
trade unionism. 

It made piles of money for its owner. Sir Charles Tennant, 
who was seldom in it. Once his daughter paid a formal visit to 


the industry and material prosperity of the nation. Sir An- 
drew Maephail in addressing the pulp and paper men did so in 
an Omar Khayyamic vein, the drift of his remarks sounding 
rather pessimistic except to those who know his gentle irony. 
He is a shrewd Scotsman who has the saving grace of the Irish 
in that he grows potatoes, which produce results — and trees, 



February 14th, 1920 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADER 


Page 9 


which do not. Sir Andrew pointed out that as tree planting 
does not bear results for sixty years or so, it is up to the Gov- 
ernment rather than the owners of land, to plant trees, and, gen- 
^ erally, he hinted to his hearers that they need not worry them- 
selves individually too much about the future wdien it is so far 
off. Next day came along the Premier of the Province of Que- 
bec who talked of Quebec's forestry resources as the most won- 
derful asset that Canada possesses. He talked of what had been 
done to encourage the industry and of what the Government 
was prepared yet to do in the way of establishing a forestry 
school. 

The third speech was from the lips of Hon. Arthur Meighen, 
federal Minister of the Interior, in which he talked about the 
magnitude of the country's railway responsibilities, looking to 
the time when all the railways may be under the Government 
ownership and operation. It was a big thing, he admitted, for 
a country with the present population of Canada, but with the 
'prospect of increased population and hard work, he was not 
fearful that this country would be unequal to running the big- 
gest railway organization on the globe. 

It was left to a clergyman, the Pev. George Adam, to sug- 
gest to the railway man that there was something worthy in the 
intangible. He told his audience — and he was the succeeding; 
speaker to Mr. Meighen— that there was another kind of dis- 1 
tribution other than of commodities that should interest them;j 
there was the equitable distribution of w^ealth, and the distribu- 1 
tion of ideas, and the latter could only be effected by the pro- j 
vision of a strong educational system which should be open to j 
the child of rich and poor alike. i 

, Prom the tone of all these speeches it was clear that our 
public men are ready to spend on anything that is going to pay 
in the long run ; that they have unbounded faith in the ability 
of the nation to face tremendous tasks, and that they are look- 
ing ahead to the future. If they would regard men, women and 
children as trees and show as much anxiety about their nurture 
and development : if they would consider it necessary to have 
a school wherever there is a railway station: if the jails were 
as effective as the railway wreck relief apparatus, would not the 
ultimate benefit to the nation afar off be as great for humanity 
as is looked for with these industrial and transportation interests ? 

Caedmon. ! 


JforiuarJi ! 


Halt, mark time? Nay, forward, by the Right. 

By that lone piece of foreign earth which holds 
The last poor remnant of Canadian child ; 

By this great land, and these, his kin, for which and whom. 
He gladly gave, all that he owned, a life; 

By Messing of the things you have. 

Humble, inadequate, though these may seem to be. 

Yet lacking which your plight were pitiful indeed; 

J^y reason of the things for which you bear the need and Avish, 
That this, your Canada, may be a better Canada, 

This, your home, a better home — 

By all these give a pledge of service. 

Up Avith your colors in the cause of High Commander, 

And march forward, 

P^orAvard by the right! 

K. C. 


WILLIAM DAVIES DEAD 


William Davis, of 14 
Oxford Avenue, Notre- 
Dame de Grace, passed 
aAvay Tuesday night at the 
Montreal General Hospit- 
al from pneumonia. Mr. 
Davis Avas a secretary of 
the Grand Lodge of Can- 
ada, was on the executive 
of the Brotherhood of 


Raihvay Firemen and En- 
gineers, and on the exe- 
cutive of the Fifth Sun- 
day Meeting Association. 
He Avas a native of Ire- 
land and for many years 
was an employee of the 
Grand Trunk Railway as 
an engineer. He is surviv- 
ed by his widow and two 
children. 


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Page 10 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADER February 14th, 1920 


Railroad Brakemen 

and $15 Silk Shirts 


R E(-Ei\'rLV a liijrhly-iiiia^niiativp talc appeared in ►Saturday 
Nio’ht, Toronto, eoneernino’ aristocratic railroad brakemen i 
who bought silk shirts at $15 a crack, and who were the 
envy of the ])oor, hungry journalists in their cheap cotton decora - 1 
tions. Tlie tale was written by one “P. Od).*' who, if he is still 
the same '‘P. ()M).*' I used to know in Montreal years ago^ is 
(juite a nifty dresser himself and, possibly, more liable to be 
dyspeptic than hnngry. He does not ‘‘get away" with his silk 
shirt story; observe' the extracts tagged on here from a letter sent 
by a railroader to Saturday Night, though whether Saturday 
Night published the letter is another story not yer at hand. 
Neither can he “get away" with the poor, hungry, non-union 
journalist stuff to-day. There are many sti’uggling journalists, ; 
to be sure, and it woidd not be surprising to learn that some of* 
them have only a cotton shirt and a (couple of cotton collars 
between them and haberdashii' disast(*r. But there are also jour- 
nalists’ unions to-day — the ways and means to econoniic free- 
dom — and 1 will gladly endorse ‘‘P. O’D.'s’’ aiiplication for 
membei*shi]> any old time. 1’hes(‘ journalists who are getting into 
unions, just like the brakemen, do not regard the brakemen as 
aristocrats, but as plain fellow-workers with their own troubles. ; 
And although I cannot ])romise “P. O'l).’' that he will dress any 
niftier or feed any fatter, I am sure he will get full value for his i 
dues in opjiortuuities of [)ractical service for his fellow-craftsmen ! 
and othei- fellow-workers, including brakemen, and in getting a : 
new angle on the silk shirt business. 

K. C. 


Following are the extracts from 
the letter referred to; they are 
self-explanatoiy ; 

Toronto, January 21st, 1920. 
The Editor Saturday Aight, 


A recent issue of Saturday Aight 
carried a story entitled ^^Put it 
There by P. O. D., which was 
one of the usual loosely strung com- 
binations of statements made in 
what is supposed to be a humorous 
maimer, giving the impressions of 
the writer on several subjects in 
general, and tlie (luestioii of trade 
unionism in particular. The writer 
devotes considerable attention to 
liimself in the story, which is not 
surprising, considering the narrow- 
minded nature of the criticism. 
Tlie story was too long to permit 
its being reproduced in its entire- 
ty; therefore, certain excerpts, 
that relate principally to the at- 
tack of the writer against the Bro- 
therhood of Railroad Trainmen, 
will be introiluced. 

The writer selects as a haven of 
refuge, during the disturbed finan- 



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DR. JAEGER *"“57., *r“"CO. limited 

MONTREAL 

WINNIPEG TORONTO 


I cial and industrial jieriod, a refuge | 
I in unionism, and in reference -to 
! that subject said: 

I “Of course, we might start a 
I journalistic union of our own; but; 
I that is always an arduous and un- ; 
j certain task. You have to gel the! 
; fellows together and start them | 
talking about their grievances — i 
this part is easy, for they seldom 
I talk about anything else — and 
j then you have to collect dues from 
i them. This latter is the real diffi- 
culty, anil only a man who has 
I tried to collect anything from a bit 
■ of journalists can appreciate how 
I insuperable it is. The boys pay i 
their bets, but nothing else, to ; 
; sjH*ak ot — possibly there isn’t' 
' anything -left to pay with. 

“ (’onsidering the matter pro and 
con — es]>ecially con — we fe^'l 
that it is wiser in every way to 
I join a union already established, 

I preferably an old and wealthy 
I union with lot of strike-funds in 
reserve for the season when strik- 
ing is pleasantest and most profit- 
able. Take the Brotherhood of 
i Railway Trainmen, for instance. 

' Look at the number of its mem- 
1 bers, the amount of money they 
I have in the banks, and the good 
i firm ho-ld they have on the poor 
Ijniblic just above the Adames ap- 
ple! Personally, we are thinking of 
becoming a brakeinan — there 
seems to be little to do and quite h 
lot to get. 

“This is no new idea of ours, 

I though it is the first time we have 
! taken the public into our confiden- 
j deuce in the matter. Even as a lit- 
tle laughing child we cherished, an 
ambition to* work on a train when 



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we wore men. This, like so many, 
other early signs of greatness, was' 
overlooked by our family and we 
were permitted to drift into jour- 
nalism. Latterly, however, we have 
come to realize the greatness of 
our mistake.^’ 

Attention will be given tlie last 
paragraph first; the writer states 
that his family overlooked his dis- 
position to work on a train, and he 
was permitted to drift into jour- 
nalism. Ilis family can be given 
credit for more sense than the writ- 
er; it evidently know that it re- 
quires brains to ivork on a train 
and, therefore, abandoned all hox^e 
of having P. O. D. enter train serv- 
ice. The writer is cne of the breed 
that is inoculated with his own 
questionable wit, and whether it 
has its foundation in truth, meaus 
little to one of his class, whose 
chief mission in life seems to be 
to make false statements, and 
with the assistance of newspaper 
owners, who have no greater sense 
of fairness or fitness than himself, 
get them before the public without 
regard to their attendant injustice 
to the person attached. 

Ilis reference to the Brotherhood 
of Railroad Trainmen is du’cct. He 
refers to the number of members 
and the amount of money thej' 
have in banks, and the “good firm 
hold they have on the poor xiublic^b 
The Brotherhood of Railroad Train- 
men has approximately 200,000 
inem])ers in the organization. It 
has some-thing over five millions 
to its credit in banks of the United 
States and Canada. It also can 
show that it has paid in death and 
disability benefits to its members 
approximately $47,000,000, and that 
it })ays approximately one quarter 
of a million caeli month for the 
same purpose. The writer dues not 
know that tlie amount of money to 
the credit of the Brotherhood of 
Railroad Trainmen is mostly in its 
Reserve Fund for the protection 
of the insurance of the members of 
th6 Brotherhood, whose occupation 
is regarded as extra hazardous, tak- 
ing from them the opportunity to 
secure insurance, in other associa- 
j tions, against disability and death, 
j at a rate they can afford to pay. 


P.O.D. does not know and presum- 
ably does not care that the aveu-age 
life of .1 l.rakeman in the organiza- 
cK/ii refAned to >s .sevoe yefirs un- 
til his death or disability claim is 
paid. 

T)ie \\i‘iter refers the “good 
I'old Ihoy have on tlie poor xmblic 
jest above the .Vdam^s apple ’b 
Ti is siateinent is merely parroting 
what same one else, v/ith as little 
regard f< r I. he facts in the case, 
has --r.id before. The writer is it* 
given credit for knoiv* u. y thing 
o‘ the merits of the qu .Jion he so 
loox'ly dlscu.-'sed. 

Let's see the firm hold the Bro- 
therhood of Railroad Trainman 
has on the public’s AdanCs apple. 
Ill 1913, the pay of the brakemen 
was $2.67 for a ten hour da}^ or 
100 miles. The amount that could 
l/i' earned liv him in a norma! 
tiventy-six day month can easily 
be determined by multipliying 
$2.67 by 26, and it is to be hoped 
that B. O. D. has enough reserve 
force left to be able to figure out 
this example in multiplication. 
Anil, then following along from 
191.*; until the present time, the 
highest wage of this brakeman is 
$4.08 per day, on which this half- 
wit attached, to Saturday Night 
dresses him in silk shirts, like the 
nighties worn by the Queen of 
Sheba, and, 1 suppose, high hats, 
diamonds and priceless trousers, 
and thus arrayed tifrns him over to 
the peojile of Toronto as a horrible 
example of extravagance run mad. 
If B. O. 1). has ability to multiply 
$4.08' by twenty-six, he ivill be able 
to ascertain for himself, which he 
has not before done, the actual 
wage a brakeman may earn work- 
ing twenty-six days a month at 
the established going rate, and hoiv 
long he must have ivorked to get 
that roll. 

Some one described an optimist 
as one who could purchase goods 
from a llebreiv and sell to a Scotc'*!' 
man, making substantial net profit, 
but B. O. D. has even that indivi- 
dual faded when he can figure on 
a brakeman buying silk shirts at 
$15.00 .>cr shirt on a wage cf $4. OS 
per day. 



February 14th, 1920 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADER 


Page 11 


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I GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES 

! UNION GROWS 

I - 

I Nearly Three-Fourths of Uncle 
• Sam’s Workers Now in A. 

F. of L. 


Per capita tax representing near- 
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National Federation of Federal 
Employees in December than in 
November, and 1,100 more in No- 
vember than in any previous month 
in the history of the organization 
is announced by Secretary-Treas- 
urer E. J. Newmyer, who has just 
closed out his books for 1919. 

The National Federation of Fed- 
eral Employees is one of four 
trade union organizations compos- 
’d exclusively of government em- 
ployees which are affiliated with 
the American Federation, and in- 
cludes 154 local unions with mem- 
bers in every state. The other three 
organizations are the postoffice 
clerks, the letter carriers and the 
railway mail clerks. 

Besides these, the rankg of the 
American Federation of Labor in- 
clude hundreds of thousands of 
other Government workers among 
•theu organized printing trades, ma- 
chinists, electricians and other 
etal trades, carpenters, masons, and 
other building trades, totalling prob- 
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The recent large gains in mem- 
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eludes all the clerical and profess- 
ional branches of the governiuent 
and other miscellaneous groups, 
with the exception only of the 
postal woikers, have taken place 
during the period since the attempt 
by Senator Myers of Montana, se- 
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of Texas, and Senator King, of 
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government employees’ affiliation 
with the rest of the organized lab- 
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XX 

Only Thing His Own 
‘M wonder will Smi'thers always 
alude to his wife so lovingly as 
•‘my own”?” 

‘‘Weil, she is his own. Every- 
thing else in his home he is paying 
for oil the instalment plan.” — 
.^ear:-cn’s Weekly. 


WAYAGAMACK 

Pulp & Paper Co., Limited 

Kraft Paper and 
Sulphate PULP 



THREE RIVERS, P. Q., Canada 


l^age 12 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADER 


February 14th, 1920 


I 


w 

Mother McGregor’s Story 


Uvc hy ihe sword, and xoe die by the sword/' 

McGregor motto. 

Xay, my son, not fighters sivashbuckling to the fray 
( Do not McGregor yeople wrong, or proimd gate unChristian doctnne) 

Hut poets, dreamers, simple folk, tillers of the soil and tenders of ihe sheep; 
Strong of heart and sinew, as needs they must; 

Rugged, maybe, as measured by the graces of great cities. 

The pomp and circumstance of court and castle ; 

Kindly and true — 

Consider, what else amongst these mountains and these waters 
Which were their own, and of which they were reflection? 

* * * 

Friends they were to all who friendly came. 

Their inner fastness open house to lean and weary stranger. 

But touch not their cubs! . 

Dare 'not to flout their simple rights of teiiritory 
Which gave them food and covering and home. 

These things tvere theirs. 

They said God gave them, and only God should, take away. 

* * * 

The mountain blood in normal course is calm and temperate, 

A little flushed, confessedly, in mating times; 

To those who know it carelessly, mayhap it does seem cold and rattier sluggish; 
But dare invader filch or mar the things McGregor owned and loved , — 

His kin, his land, his home — 

The blood ran mad and fiery as the molten steel. 

You know the phrase, that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned ; 

Hell hath; the fury of McGregor wronged. 

* * * 

Then, forsooth, the murderous .<twecp of broadsword, dull crack of axe in 

splitten skull. 

The maddened dirk deep down in shrinking flesh. 

Great odds McGregor often faced; what cared McGregor men for these! 

And if a warrior fell, up sprang his woman. 

His warrior badges on her breast, 

Bearing his bloody targe and blade, 

To shriek defiavice, and take her tvorrior^s place. 

* * * 

Harried, hunted, outlawed, their very name forbid by high decree. 

Because they sought to keep inviolate the sayictuaries they owned and loved, 

Small wonder that they lived and died by sword. 

Though only simple, ki/ndly people of the hills, who liked the ivays of peace. 
And grew wild fighters but from holy need. 

* * * 

And in all this a lesson for the times, 

Involv-ed though at casual look our modern methods seem 
As measured ivith the far-gone days — 

Keep from a man his piece of earth, his home, his cMldrei/s food. 

The things that God and nature wished that he should have, 

The elemental things he craves. 

And you breed warriors of gentle folk. 

Give him his piece of earth, his happy home, and, then, 

What need, what urge, to live and die by sword? 

K. C. 


In the Wrong Place ** 
Defendant (in a loud voicoV — I 
demand justice! I demand justice! 

Judge. — Silence! The defendant 
will please remember that he s in 
a courtroom. 


How Could He TeU? 

Judge (sternly). — Why didiiT you 
go to the help of the defendant in 
the fight? 

Witnes^<5. — I didn’t know which 
was going to be the defendant. 


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February 14th, 1920 


THE CANADIAN KailkOADER 


Page 13 




Tribute to 
Railway Y,1I1.C.A. 

Ill a foreword to an attractive 
little pamphlet issued by the Rail- 
way Y. M. C. A. of Canada, Mr. E. 
W. Beatty, President of tho C. P. 
R., pays a tribute to the woik ,i 
this Association. 

^^The high value of the work, 
says Mr. Beatty, ^‘of the Young 
Moil ’s Christian Asoeiation in tho 
interests of men an'd boys has come 
to be generally and properly re- 
cognized, i)articularly on account 
of its efforts and accomplishments 
on behalf of our soldiers during the 
recent world war. 

Among the various spheres of 
the Association activities, not the 
least valuable is the work of the 
Railway Branches which minister 
to the intellectr ^ho social, the 
moral and tho ^ .^al needs of 
railway men irresp^xWe of race or 
creed. 

^'The inception of this work on 
the Canadian Pacific Railway dates 
back to 1906 when the building at 
Dovelstolm, B. C., was erected, and 
so well satisfied were the Compa- 
ny \s officers with the experiment 
tried there that 9 additional branch 
.associations have since been estab- 
lished. These provide home sur- 
roundings and comforts for men 
ill train service when away from 
home and to many employees locat- 
ed at outlying pottits they afford 
the only home facilities that are 
available to them. 

^^It is .:ot only that good meals 
and clean beds and baths are prov- 
ided, but the educational advant- 
ages, the lecreational facilities and 
the opportunities for social inter- 
I'ourse amidst wholesome surround- 
ings must necessarily contribute to 
tne wellbeing of the men, benefit! 
the community in which they live, 
and, the Company with which they 
a f^-oJiiiployed. 

^^Tho eminently satisfactory re- 
sults of this work on the Canadian 
Pacific fines in the past, for which ^ 
I desire to express my admiration J 


The Church needs to be 
shocked. The body of its 
members must be aroused, 
and it will do no harm to 
givr the Church a jolt. Both 
the people and the Church 
need to be disturbed. The 
Church has been in, a rut too 
long, and this Foiward Move- 
ment should be the roll of 
the drum that will awake her 
to her opportunities.’^ — Rev. 
Canon Shatford,/ Montreal. 


and api>reciatiou, have without 
doubt been achieved through the 
earnest and cordial co-operation of 
the Company’s employees with the 
Association ’s officers and staffs, 
and with the continuance of their 
united efforts the future success of 
the work can, I feel sure, be con- 
fidently entrusted to them.” 

The Railway Y. M. C. A. provid- 
ed 100,000 beds to raihvay men and 
served 328,000 meals in 1919. Its 
buildings are valued at $550,000. 

n — — 

The trouble with most public 
oficers is that they consider their 
offices too seriously and the public 
too lightly. 


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Contempt of Court 


The arrest of the miners’ union 
oficials for contempt of court, fol- 
lowing the strike injunction, re- 
minds one of the story of the young 
lawyer wdio faced a judge who 
was openly hostile. 

After several attempts to pres- 
ent vital evidence which had been 
repeatedly barred out by the judge, 
the jurist reprimanded him: 

”Mr. Jones, are you trying to 
show contempt oi this court?” 

The young lawyer, seeing that 
his case was hopelegs, retorted: 


Your honoir, I have been trying 
to conceal it.” 

—Nonpartisan (St. Paul) Leader. 
•: o : 

CANADA’S POPULATION IS 
8,835,102 

Canada’s population is est- 
imated by the census branch of the 
Trade and Commerce Department 
I at 8,835,102. The census branch has 
I based its estimate for the /ear 
1919 on the known increase in 
population as shown by tJie census 
of 1901 and of 1911, Such ealcul- 
j atious' have in the past proved to 
, be appioximately coriect. 



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Send for sample 
and book. 

The Ontario Gypsum Co. 

LIMITED 

PARIS, Ontario 



Page 14 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADER 


February 14th, 1920 


The Inadequacy of Our Taxation 


(Special to the Railroader.) 


There is a considerable boom in ^ duce. There 
progress for Sir Thomas White as 
the successor to Sir Robert Borden 
and the pros and cons in his record 
are being discussed. He is a pleasant 
and agreeable person, who has cer- 
tain distinct gifts for politics. But 
it is in his own department of 
finance in which he has been ac- 
claimed by unthinking flatterers 
as a wizard that his record is most 
vulnerable. Before the democrats 
of Canada endorse hi^ return to 
political life and an even more res- 
ponsible position it would be well 
for them to examine just exactly 
how he has served them since 
1914. 

In the first place, he has been 
notoriously wrong on two major 
points: he steadily resisted the im- 
position of an income tax, which 
has now proved to be absolutely in- 
dispensable for revenue purposes; 


was ample money in 


the country and resources of taxa- 
ble funds such as Canada had 
never known before. But the cold 
fact stares us in the face that :p 
to the end of the fiscal year 1918- 
19, from the commencement of the 
war, the Bonmnion Government 
had only raised by direct taxation, 
that is by income and excess pro- 
fits taxes, the paltry sum of $80,- 
000,000. Out of all the war made 
wealth barely enough was secured 
to pay the expenses of the war for 
three months. 


come and excess profits taxes 
$472,684,960. In reality, she col- 
lected a little less than 80 million 
dollars or about one sixth of what 
ought to have been secured. Take 
the year 1918 alone, Zealand col- 
lected from income $28,097,805 and 
on the same basis, Canada should 
have raised $204,783,240. Instead 
she raised not a cent by ineome tax 
and only $21,271,038 by profits 
taxes or seven millions less than 
New Zealand with one eighth of 
the population. 

And be it not forgotten that there 
were no opportunities during the 
war of making the enormous for- 
tunes w’hich it is an open secret 
many manufacturers and financiers 
in Canada were able to acquire. 

Australia only adopted the in- 
tax in the financial year 


Great Britain paid by taxation, 
mostly direct, about 25% of her ; come , 

total war expemliture and he I 1915-16, but in the first year of its 


United States actually more than 
40%. But it may be charged that 
comparison with these old establis- 
ed and poipulous countries is unfair. 
Therefore, let us turn for evidence 
to New Zealand and Australia, 


and he stubbornly asserted that it 
would be impossible to raise dom- 
estic loans in Canada unless they 
were made taxfree, which has been 
completely disproved by the results 
of the last loan. But no man is in- 
fallible and there is some excuse 
for errors of judgment in policy. 

Howevei*, the main indictment 
against Sir Thomas lies in another 
sphere; his complete failure to levy 
direct taxation on a scale com- 
mensurate with the country’s ne- 
cessities. Sir Thomas was never 
tired of claiming credit for the 
prosperity of Canada during the 
war; he would proudly recount the ; 
total value of her war orders and ^ 
boast that the greater part of our 
war expenditure was being spent 
within our own bounds. The pros- 
perity of our industrial world was 
undeniable and the farmers were, 
getting high prices for their pro- j 


communities similar in many res- 
pects to our own. 

Nev/ Zealand had, in 1916, a po- 
pulation ef a little less thar. 1,- 
100,000 or about one ighth of our 
total. Ill the war period. New Zea- 
land collected from income tax 
alone $55,085,620 — she had very 
few war orders owing to shipping 
difficulties, and therefore no ex- 
cess profits taxes of any account. 
On the basis of population, Canada 


operation, $19,663,875 was collect- 
ed under it. Next year, the amount 
rose to $28,109,750, and in 1917- 
18, to $36,927,715. Later figures 
are not yet available. Anyhow in 
these three years, the Australian 
Finance Minister secured by direct 
income taxation $84,701,340. Ac- 
cording to the last census figures, 
1917, the population of Australia 
is 4,935,311, or about five eighth’s 
that of Canada. Mr. R. H. Coats, 
the Dominion statistician, has also 
calculated that the wealth of Aus- 
tralia bears almost the same ratio, 
five eighth’s, to Canada’s. In these 
three years, therefore, Canada on 
the basis of Australia’s policy 


should have collected by her in-, being applied to her population 



The Dental Clinic 
— of — 

ST. HIKE’S HOSPITAl 

Work executed in gold or In 
rubber at moderate prices. 
Our offices are under the su- 
pervision of experts — not stu- 
dents. 

Free Treatment to Poor 
School Children. 
TEETH EXTRACTED PAIN- 
LESSLY BY A NEW 
METHOD 

VISITING HOURS 8.30 to 8.30 

88 St. Denis St. 

Between Dorchester and 
Lagauchetiere 
PHONE EAST 6782 


More Deadly Than War 


Statistics show that influenza is nrach 
more deadly than war. In a few months it 
took more victims than fell in over four 
years of fighting. 

That it has awakened the average citiz- 
en to a more lively sense of the constant 
risk of death which he faces and the results 
which would ensue for his dependents, is 
shown by the enormous and growing de- 
mand for life assurance protection. 

Have yon realized tlie magnitude of this 
risk as affecting yon and yours? 

For information regarding necessary pro- 
tection communicate with the 

SUN LIFE 

Assurance Company of Canada 

Head Office: MONTREAL. T. B. MACAULEY, President. 


and wealth should have collected 

$135,522,144. In point of fact, she 
collected only $33,777,599 in profits 
taxes and nothing at all by income 
taxes during these three years or 
fifty millions loss thau Australia, 
with only five eighths of her popu- 
lation and wealth, let us repeat, 
collected on income taxes alone. 
Good prices were obt-ained for 
Australian wool and her supplies 
of metals were utilised for the war, 
but she had no great shell making 
contracts. However she introduced 
an excess profits tax in 1917:18 and 
secured by it $3,400,000. 

Even when we did introduce an 
income tax, its method of enforce- 
ment has been deplorably bad. It 
realised in the first year only $10,- 
000,000 and the expense of the ma- 
chinery will absorb at least $8,000,- 
000. The excuse is advanced that 
the machinery takes time to set up 
and get into efficient working or- 
der but it can be retorted that the 
Australians managed to raise by 
their first year of income tax a 
sum only a little short of $20,- 
000 , 000 . 

The comparisons could be fur- 
ther pursued and it could be shown 
what proportion direct taxation has 
borne to indirect taxation in these 
three countries. The damning fact 
would be revealed that the Finance 
Ministers of the Antipodean Dom- 
inions preferred to raise the great- 
er part of their revenues from the 
superfluity of the rich, and Sir 
Thomas chose to lay the bulk of 
his taxation burden on the should- 
ers of the conwnon people who can 
least afford to bear it. 

The evidence roughly detailed 
above cannot be refuted. The figu- 
res are reliable ana are taken from 
the various budget statements. No 
wonder our millionaires are now to 
be numbered by the score -and all 
our cities can show a riot of ex- 
travagance aud dissipation among 
the possessory classes, which is a 
.thing of evil omen both for them- 
selves and the community. The 
luxurious demands of the rich are 
no small factor in the cost of. liv- 
ing. Capital and labor which might 
be employed in producing commo- 
dities to meet the wants of the 
plain folk are being diverted to 
cater for the extravagant follies of 
the rich. Our adverse exchange 
rate in tlie U. S. is largely due to 
the enormous imports of luxuries 
which will not abate. The fact is 
that in no belligerent couutiy have 
i the richer classes escaped their 
I proper burden of taxation so suc- 
! cessfully as in Canada. Our public 
I finance has been eharacteriUHl as 
j class favoritism of the worst kind, 

! and while all his colleagues must 
I bear a share of responsibility, the 
I chief sinner has been Sir Thomas 
I White. U is little wonder that Hie 
financial mandarins of Montreal 
|*and Toronto are urging his select- 
ion as premier but what has the 
j rest of the country to say about 
I his record as the chief financial 
j adviser of a democratic country? 

! . J. A. Stevenson. 


February 14th, 1920 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADER 


15 


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Established 1 843 


The Hamilton Stove & 
Heater Co., Limited 

Successors to 


GURNEY, 

TIL0EN& 


= Company , Limited = 
HAMILTON CANADA 


Manufacturers of 

Souvenir Cooking Stoves 
and Ranges 

Souvenir Heating Stoves, 
New Idea 
Hot Air Furnaces, 
Builders’ Hardware, etc. 


Cable address 
‘'HASTCO^' 


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WOODS 

MANUFACTURING CO. LIMITED 


Jute and Cotton Bags, 
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Tents and Awnings 


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Saskatoon, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria. 


I 




Page 16 


THE CANADIAN RAILROADER 


February 14th, 


1920 


5th 

BIRTHDAY SALE 

SATURDAY 14th and following days 

years old and forging rapidly ahead, gaining new friends and customers every day by giving service and value, by 
offering at fair prices the merchandise gathered from all parts of the world. 

Our buyers are making their trips to European countries as in pre-war times and scouring the continental markets 
for the lines you’ve been accustomed to use and for fascinat ing novelties. 





LOVELY DRESSES $19.95 

Models for all occasions; evening, after- 
noon and business goAvns in Georgette, 
Crepe de Chine, Butin, Silk, Poplin, Char- 
meuse, Messaline, Serge and Jersey. 

Worth today up to $45.00, 

Sale Price $19.95. 



SPRING HATS $4.98 

Dozens of hand made hats to choose 
from, so varied that it^s impossible to at- 
tempt to describe them; they are really 
charming. Worth today $10.00. 

Sale Price $4.98. 


TAILORED HATS $2.98 


Cleverly styled straws ready to wear. 
Worth today $3.98. 


Sale Price $2.98. 



SPRING BLOUSES $5.79 

Georgettes and Crepe de Chines in some 
of the most fascinating styles shown for 
Spring. Embroidered, beaded and tailor- 
ed. Worth today up to $10.00. 

Sale Price $5.79. 


— ^Mail Orders Filled — 
— ALMY’S— 


FOR MEN, any suit in stock (except blue serge) 
$29.50. Present prices up to $55.00. 


All Separate Trousers $4.98. 
Present prices up to $9.50. 



Men’s Shirts, $1.69. Worth today $2.00. 
Silk finished Socks, 45c. Worth today 75c. 
Pyjamas, $2.19. Worth today $2.95. 

Boys’ Blouses, 85c. Worth today $1.15. 
Boys’ 3-4 golf hose, all wool, $1.15. 

Worth today $1.50. 



SPRING FOOTWEAR $5.98 
Ladies ’ high cut laced boots in black kid, 
brown and patent leather. Worth today 
$10.00. Sale Price $5.98. 

Oxfords in several styles. Worth today 
$8.00. Sale Price $4.98. 

MEN’S $14.00 BOOTS $7.49. 

Several lasts and styles to choose from 
in black and brown calfskin with leather 
and Neolin sales. Worth today up to $14. 

Sale Price $7.49. 



THE FEBRUARY SALE 0±- PURNITURE 
IS FULL OF OPPORTUITIES FOR 
YOU TO REPLENISH YOUR 
HOME. 

The daily papers wiU keep you inform- 
ed as to the special offerings. You will be 
able to achieve worth while savings. Come 
early, come often.